We prove a holomorphic
extension theorem for CR mappings between real algebraic submanifolds of ℂN. The
source and the target manifolds are assumed to be generic submanifolds of equal
dimension with source being connected, holomorphically nondegenerate, and having
at least one point at which it is of finite type. The mapping H is assumed to be a
smooth mapping which is a local diffeomorphism near at least one point of the
source. In proving our main result, we construct a CR function which is nonzero at a
given point of the source if and only if H is a local diffeomorphism near that same
point.